Mishi hito wa yo ni mo nagisa no moshiogusa kakioku tabi ni sode zo shioruru

English Translation

The ones I knew
are no more in this world, like weed
on the salt-strewn shore;
each time I write them down,
my sleeves grow limp with tears.

Meaning

Those I knew are no longer in this world; like seaweed raked on the shore, each time I write their names down, my sleeves droop, wet with tears.

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 843

Headnote: "When I composed a poem after writing the number of those who had died on memorial tablets."
This is the third poem of the sequence remembering the dead at memorial services and graves, and the last poem of that sequence. It says that those he knew are no longer in this world, and each time he writes their names, as one rakes seaweed for salt, his sleeves are soaked. According to the headnote, it was composed when he wrote the names of the dead on memorial tablets for their repose.
The author was a monk of the late Heian and early Kamakura periods who held the rank of Hōkyō.
The scene is a memorial for the dead, and the place is not recorded.
The direct occasion is writing the names of the dead on memorial tablets.
A sotoba is a long, narrow wooden tablet inscribed with Sanskrit letters or sutra passages, set up at graves and elsewhere for the repose of the dead.

The first line, "mishi hito wa," means "those I once knew well."
In the second line, "yo ni mo nagisa no," "nagisa" is a pivot word meaning both "naki," no longer in this world, and "nagisa," the shore. From "no longer in this world" it leads on to the shore.
The third line, "moshiogusa," is seaweed raked together for making salt. It was also used to mean things written and gathered, and here it stands for the names of the dead written on the tablets.
In the fourth line, "kakioku tabi ni," "kaki" is a pivot word meaning both "kaki," raking the seaweed together, and "kaki," writing names down.
In the last line, "sode zo shioruru," "shioru" means to droop, soaked. "Zo" is an emphatic binding particle, completed by the attributive "shioruru." As seaweed is soaked with seawater, the sleeves are soaked with tears. It strings together words of the seashore: "nagisa," "moshiogusa," "kaki," and "shioruru." Following the tears on the day of a service in the preceding poem, 842, it sings of tears at a memorial of writing names on tablets, and closes the sequence remembering the dead at memorial services and graves.

Author

Gyōhen

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other